Hey Bookworm friends! I’m excited to get to May’s wrap-up since it was a great month, both life-wise and in terms of reading. Plus, I will get to shine a light on the indie books that I read for #ReadIndieSFFMonth2026 ! I had so much fun hosting that reading challenge with Leslie and it was great to see a few people joining in! A massive thank you to anyone who participated and shared the word about our little event 🥰. And now, let’s get into my Reading Wrap-Up & Monthly Reset for May.
May Highlights
- Birthday Season was very successful and Mother’s Day celebrations were plentiful. I took my mom to see Stars on Ice, we went bowling, and we hosted a cake+champagne get-together for her birthday. My husband also had three separate birthday dinners (with different groups of people), add in visits with the in-laws and it was fun-filled to the brim!
- Some friends from out of town came to visit and I got to meet their baby! He was the sweetest and jolliest little guy, I was so happy holding him and bouncing him and catching up with my friends.
- We had tickets to see Brennan Lee Mulligan’s ‘Endless Dungeon’ show and had a blast! We laughed so much and I was impressed at how the comedians were able to improvise a full D&D story in around 2 hours!
- We went to a board game cafe with a friend and the power went out while we were playing so we played by phone-light (no candles sadly) and it was kind of fun and weirdly nostalgic.
- I finally went to the eye doctor to get an eye-exam and get new prescription sunglasses since I accidentally destroyed my old ones. It appears my prescription has not changed in years so that was good to hear and I love my bright yellow sunnies!
What I Read
May Reading Stats
Total Books Read:12
| Format Read |
|---|
| 📱E-Books: 6 |
| 📚 Physical: 1 |
| 🎧 Audiobooks: 4 |
| 📖+🎧Immersive: 1 |
| Genre |
|---|
 🐲Fantasy: 5 |
| 😱Horror: 1 |
| 🚀Science Fiction: 1 |
| 💥Humour: 2 |
| 💕Romance: 3 |
| Book Format |
|---|
| Graphic Novel: 3 |
| Comics: 2 |
| Novella: 3 |
| Novel: 4 |
What I Read For #ReadIndieSFFMonth2026
🐲 Cursed Cocktails by S. L. Rowland │ 🎧
Prompt: First In A Series. I really enjoyed this queer cozy fantasy. It’s a relatively low stakes story in an epic world. It centers around a blood mage who is retiring from his job and wants to settle into a new life. It was so sweet to watch him make new friends and find his place in a new town while coming to terms with his past. This is the type of cozy story that works for me!
🐲 That Which Follows You Home by Josiah D. Blizzard │📱
Prompt: Published Within The Last Year I had a lot of fun with this novella prequel! It set up the world really well and I was very invested in all the characters’ lives. I wrote a review for this one for the ‘post a review prompt’ which you can find here.
💕The Stone Initiation by Debbie Cassidy │🎧
Prompt: Try A New To Me Author From A Rec. This one was recommended in the Storygraph Challenge and I’ve never read a book with Gargoyles before so I decided to give it a shot. I had a very mixed experience with this supernatural romance. The world-building was fun, there is a mystery that was intriguing, and I really liked the main character and the friends she made. However a lot of the drama hinges on one of my least fav tropes: fated mates (I just can’t with it!). I also discovered that the Omegaverse is aggressively not for me. If I hear the words male or female in a casual conversation one more time, I’m gonna have a cow! Example: “The female I fell in love with”. No thank you.
💕SOS Hotel: For A Supernaturally Safe Stay! by Ariana Nash as Adam Vex │🎧
Prompt: A Kissing Book (Romance is Present). I’ve been wanting to start this series for a while because I’ve heard it’s been compared to Hazbin Hotel and I had a lot of fun with this first book! It’s a supernatural romance and an urban fantasy mystery. An ex-porn star demon and a totally normal—don’t ask questions—human set up a hotel as a safe space for supernatural creatures. The characters are really fun, the humour is dark yet silly, and it’s very spice-forward.
💕SOS Hotel: Friendly Sanctuary for the Fiendishly Fabulous by Ariana Nash as Adam Vex│🎧
Prompt: A Novella. These audiobooks are short and fun and I liked the first book enough that I jumped right into the second one! It’s a MMM romance and I love all of the characters, I want them all to be safe and happy but of course they’re in the middle of like five disasters. The push and pull of the various romantic entanglements is fun and I love that in this second book we get to know more about the mysterious vampire character. I will continue this series.
Other Reads
🐲Red and the Wolves by Cherry Zong│📱
This was an interesting retelling of little red riding hood where the roles of the wolves, grandmother, and riding hood were flipped and completely different. The art was just the right amount of creepy and the ending was satisfying while still being a bit unexpected. It was a strong debut and I would recommend it to lovers of graphic novels.
💥Strange Planet and Stranger Planet by Nathan W. Pyle│📱
I am familiar with this comic artist from Instagram so when I saw his books on Hoopla, I automatically borrowed them! I enjoy his sense of humour and the little aliens who are learning how humans live. The overly literal language they use to describe everything from an outsider’s point of view is so entertaining and puts things we take for granted in a new light. I really loved my time with these.
🚀The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez│📖+🎧
I have been wanting to try this author for a while so I was so happy when this was picked for my friend book club in May! I absolutely adored this; it’s the kind of Sci-Fi that makes me fall in love with the genre even more! A sweeping story about a woman who spends a lot of her life in a time pocket and thus experiences time differently. Her journey connects to a young boy who doesn’t speak and has no family and so they form a found family of their own but it’s also so much more than that. I especially loved how anti-empire and anti-capitalist this story was. Currently vying for my top read of the year.
😱Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton│📖
Another buddy read I enjoyed. The strange writing style won me over right away and I really loved this book. I appreciated the different take on zombies, the characters had such personality and the story was so creative. It was honestly unlike anything I’ve ever read and I would recommend it to anyone who likes books that are a bit weird.
🐲Unfamiliar, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 by Hayley Newsome│📱
This is a really cute graphic novel duology about a young witch that moves to a new city because she wants to make new friends. The art style is so whimsical and bright with a light touch of spookiness. The first volume introduces us to new witches and as they become friends they help each other with their issues. I liked the second volume the most because that’s when the story gets more interesting as there’s a bit of a mystery and a budding romance. It’s not exactly the most memorable story but worth checking out for the art alone as far as I’m concerned.
What I Watched
The Mandalorian and Grogu
I’m not caught up on all the Star Wars TV shows so I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this movie but my husband really wanted to watch it and I’m so glad he convinced me to give it a try! I had such a fun time with it and let’s be honest most of it is because of how cute and funny Grogu is; I get why he gets so much love. I loved how self contained this story is. I didn’t have to know much about the wider SW politics or lore to be fully invested but now I’m thinking I may want to give the Mandalorian TV show a chance.
Smosh Reddit Stories
Pretty much the only show we watched all month. We’ve now caught up and at the mercy of Saturdays when the new Smosh Reddit Stories drop. 🥲
Gaming Highlights of May
My Top Video Game of the Month
Dredge
I started playing Dredge because my friend gave it to me as a gift and I’ve been enjoying it a lot but I also have to be in the right mood to play it. It’s an exploration game where you play as a fisherman who crashes their boat and ends up in a small creepy town. You must fish to make money so you can own your new boat but in the meantime there are also weird occurrences, hauntings at sea, and lovecraftian fish.
Exploring can be stress-inducing sometimes and mildly scary, especially at night, because giant creatures ram against your boat and break it. There’s lots to do: mysteries to solve, fish to collect, and treasures to dredge but I am making progress!
My Top Board Game of the Month
Wilmot’s Warehouse
So far I’ve only played this game once but it’s so different and inventive. Basically you have all these tiles of colours and shapes that vaguely look like things and players are supposed to put them face down in a grid and then remember where they all are.
Sounds difficult right? It kind of is but with the help of rules and multiple brains, you’re supposed to make a story as a memory aide in order to find the tiles against the clock at the end. I was shocked by how many tiles I was able to remember with this method and I’m definitely interested in playing again on the harder levels! It’s the type of game that’s never the same each time you play.
Crafty WIP
Here is how my cross stitch project has advanced since the last time I shared my WIP. I’m on the demon thingy in the background but I have filled out both flames. For anyone wondering it’s the Magus fight scene from Chrono Trigger. That’s the extent of my knowledge of this game😅.
I’m wondering if I should backstitch each section of the project in one of the colours from that section. For example backstitch the pillar in purple and the demon in brown just so that they stand out more against the black backround. If you’re a cross-stitcher what would you do?
Let’s chat in the comments!
What have you been watching or playing lately? Or, have you read any of these books?
I’ve been very curious about Dredge! But a little daunted by how much of it there is, you know? But I think I will get it at some point!